Thirteen new paintings will be displayed by the famous artist A. Ramachandran from Sunday, in the capital giving knowledge regarding how the Covid-19 lockdown persuaded phenomenal experimentation in the style and content of his work.

Ramachandran’s latest spell of creativity highlighted by visual grandeur and subtle expressions will be showcased in the two venues in the city organized by Vadehra Art Gallery (VAG) that also helped him overcome the melancholy of the worldwide pandemic for almost two years.

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One of the exhibitions titled ‘Subaltern Nayikas & Lotus Pond’ will begin at Triveni Kala Sangam, this Sunday (November 14), while the other will commence the next day at VAG’s Modern Gallery in Defence Colony. The show which is going held at Shridharani Gallery of Triveni Kala Sangam will span up to 17 days (From November 14 – 30). The exhibition which is going to be held at VAG Gallery will initiate from November 15 to December 12.

“Both exhibitions will serve as a sample of the master painter’s extraordinary style,” says VAG Director Arun Vadehra, who founded the gallery in 1987.

Among 13 paintings, 8 paintings will be on ‘Ashta Nayikas’. However, Ramachandran tends to break the raised status the heroines enjoy in the Natya Shastra, penned down by Bharata Muni in this series.

86 years old Ramachandran notes about the paintings which show the faces of Bhil tribal women of northwest India, “It’s not just beautiful people who fall in love. Hence the word subaltern”.

Art historian Rupika Chawla stated, “Black humour and irony are intrinsic to Ramachandran and his creative programming,” adding that the artist typically goes for “playful use of visual expression”.

Another obsession of Kerala-born Ramachandran is the Lotus Ponds’ along with the sprawling water-bodies of Rajasthan.

Ramachandran did his Masters’s in Malayalam literature before leaving Bengal in 1957 to get enrolled in Viswa Bharati, Shantiniketan who hails from Attingal near Thiruvananthapuram.

Since the mid-1960s, Ramachandran has been a Delhiite having taught at Jamia Millia Islamia. Besides being the winner of prestigious honors like Raja Ravi Varma Puraskaram and Kalidas Samman, he is also a Padma Bhushan awardee.

(With inputs from IANS)